Band 6.0 IELTS Writing Task 2 Model Answer

Overall Band Score: 6.0 · Cambridge IELTS 18 · 2026-11-02

IELTS Writing Task 2 question

In many countries around the world, rural people are moving to cities, so the population in the countryside is decreasing.

Do you think this is a positive or a negative development?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.

 

Student answer (Band 6.0)

Many countries are experiencing a mass migration from rural areas to major cities, leading to a decrease in rural population. There are many reasons behind this change and I believe that it is majorly a positive development with a few downsides.

Major cities are very developed in terms of healthcare, education and employment opportunities. Rural areas especially villages either lack or have underdeveloped healthcare. For example, in case of an emeergency, a village hospiital might not have access to the equipment required. Thus, they are forced to shift their patients to nearby cities for better treatment. Another reason is the limited educational infrastructure. Often, villages do not have access to higher education, and children are sent to universities and colleges in other cities. Employment is a major reason for this shift because many industries and businesses are located in a city.

Migration from villages or rural areas have a few drackbacks as well. In cities, most of the daily use items like vegetables, fruits and milk are obtained from nearby agricultural ares or from other cities. As the migration to cities increases, population increases as well. Farmers are responsible for most of our produce and if there is imbalance between the capacity of producers and consumers, meeting the food demand becomes difficult and as a result, increase exponentially. Another consequence of large population is cities is the decraesing amount of land available for houses and apartments. Limited amount of houses ae available in cities and if the capacity of a city increases beyond its means, they will acquire more land to contruct buildings, ultimately reducing the amount of agricultural land available.

Migrating to a city comes with its own benefits and challenges and I believe that the difficulties can be reduced considerably if sufficient attention is paid to solve rural problems.

AI examiner evaluation

Task Achievement / Task Response: Band 6.0

Your position is clear: you consider rural-to-urban migration mainly positive, while acknowledging drawbacks. You support the positive side with relevant points about healthcare, education and employment, and the example of a village hospital lacking equipment helps illustrate the healthcare issue. You also identify consequences such as pressure on food supplies and loss of agricultural land. However, the negative effects are not developed as clearly: the link between fewer rural residents and difficulty meeting food demand needs more explanation, and the conclusion shifts towards solving rural problems without clearly restating why the overall development is positive. Develop the comparison between benefits and costs and make the final judgement more explicit.

Coherence and Cohesion: Band 6.0

The response has a clear overall structure, moving from an introduction to benefits, drawbacks and a conclusion. Paragraphing helps the reader distinguish the two sides, and linking expressions such as “For example,” “Another reason” and “As a result” show how points relate. Some connections, however, are not fully clear. In the drawbacks paragraph, the move from migration to food shortages is asserted rather than explained, and “as a result, increase exponentially” has no clear subject. The final sentence introduces a solution-focused idea rather than neatly concluding the argument. Use clearer references and transitions to show precisely how each consequence follows, and make the conclusion directly answer the question.

Lexical Resource: Band 6.0

You use an adequate range of topic vocabulary, including “migration,” “healthcare,” “educational infrastructure,” “agricultural land” and “employment opportunities.” These choices help communicate the main ideas, and some less common expressions are attempted. There are, however, several spelling errors, including “emeergency,” “hospiital,” “drackbacks,” “decraesing” and “contruct,” which reduce accuracy. Some word combinations are also imprecise: “majorly a positive development” is less natural than “largely positive,” while “daily use items” could be expressed more specifically as “everyday food products.” Check spelling carefully and choose collocations that sound natural in formal academic writing.

Grammatical Range and Accuracy: Band 6.0

You use a mix of simple and complex sentence forms, including clauses introduced by “because,” “if” and “as.” Most of the argument remains understandable, but some grammatical errors affect clarity. For example, “Migration from villages or rural areas have” has a subject–verb agreement error, and “if there is imbalance” needs an article. In “if the capacity of a city increases beyond its means, they will acquire more land,” the pronoun does not clearly agree with “a city.” The sentence ending “as a result, increase exponentially” is also incomplete because it lacks a clear subject. Review agreement, articles and pronoun reference, and ensure each clause has a complete, clearly connected structure.

See this exact question answered at other band scores. The same prompt compared across bands.

Browse more IELTS Writing model answers or get your own writing scored by the same AI examiner.